HATS off to Joe Foley for the initiative he showed when, in 2020, he staged the first running of the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes at Naas, a valuable median auction race that has a winners’ purse of some €150,000.

Little wonder that such a behemoth as Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien would target it with a decent runner, and they won the initial staging of the contest, and doubled up this year.

Heavens Gate, a daughter of Churchill (Galileo) was the mount of Ryan Moore, and she is a filly who will surely go on to take a stakes race. The only filly to win the race before, Juddmonte’s Sacred Bridge, won a Group 3 next time out.

This was the second winner of the race in five years to have been bred by Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien’s Whisperview Trading, and but for a total of three lengths, Heavens Gate would be an unbeaten winner of five races. Instead, she is a dual winner, and her placed efforts include running third in both the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket and the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Heavens Gate is the sixth winner for her Danzig (Northen Dancer) dam Itqaan. That Hamdan Al Maktoum-bred won the first of three starts over a mile at Pontefract, and then retired to the paddocks. Itqaan’s half a dozen winners come from 10 foals, and she has just failed to equal the achievement of her own dam, the dual listed winner Sarayir (Mr Prospector), as half of her 14 foals won, three of them being stakes winners.

Outstanding runners

Even in a family of outstanding runners, Sarayir’s stud record is notable.

Her best runner was the classic and dual Group 1 winner Ghanaati (Giant’s Causeway). She only raced six times, won the 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes in 2009, and was runner-up in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes and placed in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes. At stud she had two pattern winners, three-time Group 2 winner Mutasaabeq (Invincible Spirit), and Wafy (Dubawi).

Sarayir’s son Mawatheeq (Danzig), an own-brother to Itqaan, won the Group 3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes and was beaten half a length by Twice Over in the Group 1 Champion Stakes, while her daughter Rumoush (Rahy) was a stakes winner at Newmarket and placed in the Group 1 Oaks. Rumoush has produced three stakes winners at stud, the best of which was dual Group 3 winner Muntazah (Dubawi).

I have mentioned the breeding performances of a few of Sarayir’s daughters, but it is worth pointing out that no less than seven of her daughters have been responsible for stakes winners. Last year’s Group 3 winner and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes runner-up Alyanaabi (Too Darn Hot) is out of one of them, the unraced Alyamaama (Kitten’s Joy), but for now I want to focus on the twice-raced Eshaadeh (Storm Cat).

Stakes winners

The best of Eshaadeh’s winners was the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes heroine Maqaasid (Green Desert), and her Group 1 placings included running third in the 1000 Guineas.

Through her own daughters, Eshaadeh is grandam of six stakes winners, four of whom are worthy of a mention. The best pair are Group 1 winners Shraaoh (Sea The Stars) and Il Fornaio (Orpen), while Miqyaas (Oasis Dream) and Raheen House (Sea The Stars) are both Group 2 winners.

Sarayir is out of the late Queen Elizabeth’s Height Of Fashion (Bustino), and she went unbeaten at two in 1981, making a winning debut in the Listed Acomb Maiden Stakes at York (yes, a race for maidens with listed status!), adding the Group 3 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster, and rounding off with victory in the Group 3 (now Group 1) Fillies’ Mile at Ascot. Height Of Fashion raced four more times and added the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes and Listed Lupe Stakes to her tally.

A daughter of her owner-breeder’s dual classic winner Highclere (Queen’s Hussar), Height Of Fashion went on to become an outstanding broodmare for Sheikh Hamdan. Her first foal was the Group 3 winner Alwasmi (Northern Dancer), and he was followed by Unfuwain (Northern Dancer) who went one better and became a Group 2 winner. The jackpot was hit with her third offspring.

Champion

Nashwan (Blushing Groom) was a clear-cut champion at three for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, and that season won the Group 1 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse Stakes and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. A fourth stakes winner with her first four foals, thanks to the Group 2-placed Mukddaam (Danzig), established Height Of Fashion as one of the best broodmares in the world.

It was a few years before she had her next stakes winner, and this was Sarayir. Five stakes winners is some achievement, and Height Of Fashion had already earned her place in the pantheon of great mares. There was be a final hurrah, however, and with her final foal, born at the age of 19 years, she got a well-deserved second Group 1 winner. He even matched Nashwan’s achievement of winning four times at the highest level.

Nayef (Gulch) won the Juddmonte International, Champion Stakes and Prince of Wales’s Stakes in England, and the Sheema Classic in Dubai, and was a successful sire. Sarayir’s full-sister, the Listed Cheshire Oaks runner-up Bashayer (Mr Prospector), is grandam of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Lahuddood (Singspiel), and third dam of the Group 1 winning full-brothers Baaed (Sea The Stars) and Hukum (Sea The Stars).